from “Something Lost, Something Gained”
from Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
We talked as the train rocked,
as the cars creaked,
as the miles showed nothing but empty space,
we talked through the pink of the setting sun,
and into the dark.
I told him about Ma dying.
I told him about my father,
and how the thing that scared us both the most
was being left alone.
And now I’d gone and left him.
I told him about the piano,
and Arley Wanderdale,
and how I wasn’t certain of the date,
but I thought it might be my birthday,
but he was sleeping by then, I think.
He was like tumbleweed.
Ma had been tumbleweed too,
holding on for as long as she could,
then blowing away on the wind.
My father was more like the sod (1).
Steady, silent, and deep.
Holding on to life, with reserves underneath
to sustain (2) him, and me,
and anyone else who came near.
My father
stayed rooted, even with my tests (3) and my temper,
even with the double sorrow of
his grief and my own,
he had kept a home
until I broke it.
1 sod: Grass
2 sustain: Support
3 tests: Misbehavior
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic, Inc., 1997, pp. 201–202.
What does Billie Jo mean when she writes that her father is “more like the sod”?
Read the following definition of reserves.
reserves (n.): Something kept for a particular purpose
Now read these lines from the passage.
“My father was more like the sod.
Steady, silent, and deep.
Holding on to life, with reserves underneath
to sustain him, and me,
and anyone else who came near.”
PART A: What do Billie Jo’s father’s reserves represent in this context?
PART B: What does the word reserves suggest about Billie Jo’s father?
PART AA: Which statement describes Billie Jo’s response after talking to the man on the train?
PART BB: Which two pieces of evidence best support this idea?